Posts tagged Glór Tíre

Its been a little while since I wrote in here but musically there hasn’t been too much to tell you all about. I have been busy working on different things and in ways not getting far, or as far as I would like but, at the minute I think I can finally say things are starting to take shape.

A few weeks back I got a call from Liam Kett who presents a show on Kfm which is a radio station in Kildare to tell me that I had been chosen to receive an award at the Leinster Entertainment Awards. I was surprised and delighted at this news. I had heard that the awards were taking place but didn’t know much about them. This is only the second year that they have been running so they must have just slipped me by last time round. The awards were to be held on Monday last the 16th so I selected the songs that I wanted to perform on the night and got myself ready for the big day.

Last week was a nice busy music filled week here in Carlow with the Pan-Celtic festival taking place in the town. This festival is made up of all the different celtic regions coming together for a week to play music and dance and show off their different traditions. Find out about this years festival which has just ended by visiting the Pan-Celtic website and it will probably explain it all much better than I will.

Anyway, Darragh, who you will have heard me mention here before decided to come down on Saturday to play a few tunes and join in some of the sessions that were taking place in some of the pubs in the town. Jennifer was coming for the weekend and so it worked out nice that they could travel together on the train to Carlow. We left him get more or less straight to the music when he got here and spent a while chatting and took ourselves to a local Indian restaurant where we had a nice meal and then went in search of him afterwards and enjoyed listening to a session he was playing in. More tunes had to be played in another part of the country so it was up early enough for Darragh on Sunday morning and we just relaxed for the rest of the day and spent some of it with my family before going to see the Hunger Games in the cinema on Sunday evening. Both of us read the book and are now on the second book of the three in the series. Jennifer kindly came with me to see it as she had already taken her nephew Jack to see it in Derry about two weeks ago. It was nice to get to see it but I do prefer the book and some of the characters were not how I would have imagined them to be played.

Monday was like any other day really except I was not working and Jennifer was still here. I remember her commenting to me that she had been talking to someone on the phone and they wanted to know was I excited about the awards and she told them I was “so laid back you’de think that nothing was happening at all that evening”. Well, I wasn’t thinking about it all too much but yes, of course I was very pleased about it all but slightly nervous also. This was the first time that Jennifer actually came to a live gig with me that I was performing at so I was hoping she would enjoy it.

I think that I was number 8 to perform and the audiance were superb. Liam had asked me to consider singing Noreen Bawn as he really liked my version of it for Glor Tire. I was totally surprised and really happy when the audiance stood for me at the end of the performance and having been only asked to originally sing two songs I was asked to finish off with one more. It really was a brilliant night and there are some pictures on my Facebook page for anyone to see. I am glad to report that Jennifer did enjoy herself and it was fantastic to have her there with me. She is, and always has been very supportive to me during our time together in all I do where my music is concerned. I would also like to just thank the organisers of the Leinster Entertainment Awards for putting on a great show and considering me for “male vocalist of the year”. It really was an honour for me to be able to accept the award.

Well, Christmas is finally here. I have so much that I could probably write about in this post but I will try and keep it as short as possible. Now, if I could do that when I am having conversations with people that would be great but well, I can’t try and do everything right can I?

The last few days have been a bit mental for me. At the start of the week I was getting ready for my final appearance on Glor Tire which I have wrote about already here. It was just so nice to be able to get to the final week and to have the support of so many people. Last week I was lucky to be voted into one of the top two positions which meant I was safely through to the final show. If I had been in one of the bottom three positions as there were only five people left in the series I would have had to wait on a decision from the judges as to whether I could go forward or not but thankfully this did not happen. As you may have read, this did happen the week before so the level of support that I received in the following few days after that was just incredible.

Wednesday was just a real enjoyable day from the time I reached Galway right to the end of it. The voting lines for the competition closed at 12:00 so I knew while rehearsing that everything was done now. I was just going to do what I know I can do which is sing and if it wasn’t going to be for me then that was just life. That was my attitude all through the competition and I know people around me just couldn’t understand why I was so laid back about it all but what is the point? I could feel tension there some of the weeks with others but I am not into all of that and maybe I don’t do the competitive thing very well. If something good happens for me I just see myself as being lucky and I just should be thankful for it. Anyway, the rehearsals went well and I was happy and all good to go. For the final show we had to sing a Christmas song together and while I wasn’t entirely happy with it as a song choice I just went along with it and it went better than I thought it might. I had a great crew of people travel down to support me which was also good. A few people could not be there which was a big pity but what with Christmas coming up so near and work commitments it just couldn’t be helped. I was delighted to have whole family there including my granny. I did think that it was going to be a long day for her but I know she enjoyed herself and she was one of the first, if not the first person to get herself up to congratulate me. The show was more relaxed than other weeks also and we sang two songs each. Now, I will always be my own worst critique but I was happy with how I performed on Wednesday. Thankfully enough viewers liked what I did over the whole series and I was declared the winner. A friend told me on Thursday when the result was declared I looked as if I was on a delay system or something or someone was translating to me what had just happened as it took me about a minute to react. I was surprised. I had not built myself up to any sort of hype about it thinking I was going to win. In fact, I was a little wound up about it all on Tuesday night and someone made the mistake of phoning me up and well, god love them. When they didn’t kill me or something I don’t think they ever will.

Ever since Wednesday I have had nothing but lots of kind messages of support and good luck for the future. People are so nice and I am really grateful for all messages and phone calls and stuff like that. I am a quiet person when it comes to myself. I don’t like much fuss and probably need to just relax a little concerning all of that but that is just the way I am. I just get a little overwhelmed with it all but it is lovely of course when people are so kind.

So, Christmas is finally here. I am going to pop down town in a bit after writing and sending this blog post for one last present and then all I have to do is sit back and enjoy the Christmas. I am looking forward to it now. In some ways it can be a sad time of year as it does have some sad memories for me but when it gets to this time I do have to say that I like it and enjoy it. I am heading away after Christmas to celebrate the New Year with Jen and I am looking forward to that. Have a bit of stuff to carry but might figure out a way of getting Ralph to have a back pack or something haha. I do hope that everyone that reads this has a lovely Christmas. I hope that whatever Christmas means to you it is a good time. I would like to thank anyone that has helped me in any way over the past year and to all people that have taken an interest in my music or have just taken the time to have a chat and a bit of crack with me. I would just like to single out one or two people. I would like to thank my good friend Digital Darragh for his great and fantastic support particularly with Glor Tire and also earlier when he got the ball rolling and organized along with my sisters a small birthday get-together for me. Myself and Digital go back many years and went to school together and he is a great guy to know. Since that time of my birthday which was in May lots of good things started to happen for me and the rest of the year has been absolutely brilliant. I would also like to thank Jen also. She listens to me and talks to me about everything and even though I have to drive her mad at times with my nonsense she is just great. She says I do be funny a lot of the time but I reckon she is just being too nice. She has also introduced me to some great music in the last while which is great also. People like Joan Ann, Emma and Cathal have been hugely supportive to me also and I don’t mean to put them in any particular order. These are just some close friends that have always been there to help out or to just listen to me and at the end of the day that is what friendships are all about. So, until I write again here which will probably be in the New Year. Have a great one and enjoy yourselves.

I really can’t believe that I am writing this post and also that it has come to this time already. Three weeks ago I wrote telling you that I was going to be on the first of the four final shows of Glor Tire for this year and hoping that I would get to do well. Well, I am really so happy to be able to write now and thank everyone for all the support I have received in the last three weeks and to be able to write on this final week and let anyone know that reads my blog that I am indeed in the final. There are a few people such as family and close friends that I should thank but I am not going to start putting down names either. People I am referring too and who read this blog will know who they are themselves. I did not get a chance to write last week cause I just got distracted with everything going on and trying to keep up the campaign both on twitter and facebook for people to keep voting and supporting me. Show number two was a close shave. Unfortunately I was in the bottom three in terms of the voting and only one contestant can be selected from the bottom three in the first three shows to go through to the next one. The judges selected me to continue on and thanks to all the people that got behind me this week I was called out number one to perform on Wednesday last in show three. This meant that my way to the final was secured and I could sing knowing that I was going to get the chance to sing in the final show where only the votes of the public matter. The judges will not have any influence on the final decision. There are three of us left in the competition. All I can say now is the best of luck to the other contestants and hopefully if I am lucky enough I may win but if not then I know that I did all I could and I will have enjoyed my time taking part in the competition.

To give myself a little distraction from it all today I went Christmas shopping. I have done some of it already but needed to pick up more bits today. We are doing a Kris Kindle or Secret Santa in our house which means we are only buying for one person each. I just can’t decide what I want to buy my family member that I picked out yet and will need to give it a little more thought. Put the finishing touches to another very important present earlier also. I love the amusement that I get when I bring up this present to this person cause they try or they were trying initially to guess what it was but they are giving up now. Now, I won’t tell them but its hard cause I am hopeless at keeping secrets at times but the build up to this is so much fun and its not long more to go now till they get it in their hands although the one thing I would say is that they will need both hands free to hold it.

Friday was the annual office party. I don’t know why but in the days leading up to it I wasn’t overly looking forward to it. I have some lovely work colleagues and I always have great craic going out with them and this party was no different but for some reason I just wasn’t as up for it as other years. Maybe it was also to do with the fact that I haven’t been going out much lately. Anyway, the night was great fun and we went to Kilkenny this year which was a change from staying in Carlow where the office is. Fair play to the two organizers Clare and Louise who did a great job. I was absolutely wrecked yesterday though but I think that is cause I am just out of practice with the going out and drinking stuff. Last night I am just not going to talk about cause that was just a bad finish to a good day but ya have to move on and just try and forget about it as things happen at times that you just can not do anything about.

So, once more and for the final time on this blog can I just appeal to all my readers that if you like my music and have had an opportunity to hear me sing then please think of giving me a vote or two for the final show. The voting lines will close on Wednesday at noon Irish time. The show will go out on TG4 at 10:30 on Wednesday night and as I have stated above, there is only one vote that matters this week. Please vote glor 7 to 53307 in Ireland or in the north or UK vote glor 7 to 81108. Thanks so much for all your support and I will blog later in the week to report on how it all goes on Wednesday.

Well, it looks like I get the opportunity now to perform in week two of the eliminations of Glor Tire. In truth, I am taking each week as it comes. That is being totally honest. I am delighted to be able to get this far and I do have to also say that last Wednesday I did really enjoy my performance. I think I am just getting more into it as I go along. Once I get into a routine with the cameras and all that stuff that I am not always use to then I am fine.

We arrived in the city of the tribes people just before 2:00 on a wet Wednesday afternoon last. By a pure co-incidence we ended up eating lunch in the same caffay that we were in the last time. That was the one I wrote about in my last blog post. I rather like that place now. I didn’t hear anything musically that jumped out at me this time but its nice there. I got to practice with the band just after 3. Slight technical difficulties meant that things were running slightly late but everything did get back on track and we did have plenty of time before the show was recorded to get all things done. It was great that I had lots of support with me. I had some people from work and a bus load of 34 people that also came to support me. A big thanks to all the lads who were involved with the banners and stuff that were displayed by way of supporting me. That all means a lot to me. I know that the type of music that I am doing on this show is not to everyone’s taste but its wonderful that people are supporting me and encouraging me. The song that I performed “Morning Sun and Memories” is a song that I first heard maybe as far back as 15 years ago. Its one that has not been recorded by many people but I do like it. I haven’t had the chance to meet the person that wrote it yet but I do hope to meet him in the future and I do hope that he liked my version of his song. I always like to do a good job on a song and I try to remember that it has been written by someone and to try and be mindful as to not be in any way disrespectful to it if say you need to tweak things. This song doesn’t require any tweaking at all really. It just flows the way it is in my opinion. Anyway, it was good to me this week.

This coming Wednesday is week two of four. Voting lines are open till 12:00 Wednesday afternoon and I still need your support. You can vote for me by texting glor 7 to 53307 in the Republic or glor 7 to 81108 in the North and in the UK. Hopefully I can last another week.

This could be the last time I get to write on here about my experience on Glor Tire. I remember first writing about it probably around the end of May when I wrote about being asked to appear on the show. I am not usually a competitive person although I have taken part in competitions in my younger days and so if it had been a case of me having to apply to take part on the show I can honestly tell you I wouldn’t be here writing about it today and I wouldn’t have even thought of going for it. Even when Trudi contacted me and asked me could I be her chosen person I was still hesitant but after being persuaded by family and some friends I decided to go for it. I have said it from the outset. Its all a bit of crack for me. I can sing yes, but I am not like the best in the world and never want to be. It is you, or the kind people that are voting for me that will keep me in this competition and so if I do well it will be you that have to take the credit for a lot of it. I will just do what I enjoy doing and that is to be able to sing and play music.

Last Wednesday saw the last of the pre-recorded shows going out on TG4. I remember the day very well. I had to do three separate trips to Galway that week for recording and it was great that this one was on the Friday and I could relax for the weekend afterwards. It was the perfect sort of Irish Summers day. Well, it started raining before we left Carlow and it followed us all the way to Galway and continued to rain while we were there. I happen to like Galway as cities go. But I do not like trying to get round it in the rain. We had to be there for around 4:00 for a rehearsal with the band and then I remember running down the street trying to find a caffay where you could just get something simple like a sandwich to eat. Anyway, we found one and had something nice and I remember hearing Shining Light from Ash. Hadn’t heard it in years and it just got stuck in my head. I had to come home later and listen to it again and just listen to the lyrics and the melody which is just such a catchy thing. Ash are a rock group from Northern Ireland who I haven’t heard too much about in the past few years. I wouldn’t have been a huge fan but I can be like that with some groups or artists. I hear a track or two that just blow me away and I just have to go and investigate.

The recording of the show itself went fairly smoothly with no real hitches. By the Friday I was use to the drill of what to expect from the rehearsals and working with a band that I had never worked with before and also dealing with some fantastic production people. I was nervous as to how things like that would go for me as I didn’t want people being any way awkward around me because of me being blind and them not knowing what to say or how to talk to me about things but I am happy to say how nice it is that this didn’t happen. It will be a pleasure to work with all the people on the show again this week and for however long more I get to stick around for. The feedback that I received from the judging panel was very good and I couldn’t have asked for better. It is also nice when you have a well known and respected songwriter/singer on the panel and hearing what they have to say about you. I have had an interest in Charlie and his work for years and never had the pleasure of meeting him till the start of this series of Glor Tire. I have a couple of what I think are interesting songs picked for the next few weeks. It will only be the people that are watching and voting that will decide whether I can carry on to the next programme and get to sing them all or not.

Many people tell me that they read my blog and I do be surprised at some of the people that have told me that they enjoy reading it. We will see after this post if any of you care to respond. I am very inconsistent with it so that must not be a good thing.

Anyway, things have been happening in my life. Last Friday I graduated with a certificate in Employment Management Relations from the National College of Ireland. This was a course that I started doing through work. My job, that is the one that pays the most bills for me at the moment centres around employment law. I do like it. I have found myself bored at times and frustrated where I work because of the constraints of the job and sometimes I do find it restrictive but I can’t really go into it much here. Lets just say that I would like to be able to continue working in this area but hopefully some day work slightly differently and come at it from a different angle. Anyway, I, being my usual self didn’t want any fuss for the graduation. I managed to drag my very good friend Jen with me. I really must thank her for getting up so early and travelling down to Dublin to be on time for it all. It was an early start for her but I do appreciate it. I have mentioned it before on here but do check out her blog Paws For Thought and I am sure when you read that and discover what a real blog is like compared to this one you probably will not be coming back to read this one any more. Anyway, we arrived at the Convention Centre for about 12:00 and I met some people from work and after a lot of waiting around and unfortunately some photos we eventually got seated for the formalities to begin. Ralph I am happy to say was very good for Jen and Mark. Mark is the partner of a work colleague. I think that both Mark and Jen managed to keep themselves from getting too bored with all the waiting around and stuff they had to do. Thankfully photos have now come back from the event for the family to be able to see and they are very happy with them. I wasn’t going to have pictures done at all cause I didn’t really think that they would matter when I couldn’t see them but sometimes I would forget about maybe my parents or other family members wanting to see them and well, at least now I can put one up here in the house.

After coming all that way, Jen decided to come a little bit further and spend the weekend here in Carlow with me. It was a great weekend and the unfortunate thing about good weekends is that they just fly by far too quickly. Still, it wasn’t as rushed for her as the last time she paid a very quick flying visit for my birthday last May.

Apart from all that I am getting ready now for the final run of shows for Glor Tire. The last of the three pre-recorded shows will go out tomorrow night. I have been very pleased with the reaction to me so far on the show. People are very nice and kind and I really do appreciate all the support that I have gotten. I will not forget some of the nice personal messages that friends have sent me. It means a lot to me to have good friends and to be able to receive such nice thoughtful messages. I don’t like to comment on any particular things that the guest judges have to say on the programme but some people have been annoyed with John Creedon for his comments to me about moving around on the stage or trying a bit of dancing or something like that. John just gave his thoughts. He was asked for comments and I respect his opinion. I will not be dancing or anything like that. I would like to try and hope to be able to present what I have to offer in different ways. If that doesn’t get me first place in this competition then so be it. I am very happy that none of the guest judges have touched on my blindness. I have huge respect for them for that. It is not an issue and I never like it to be. I like to be judged good or bad on how I perform and not because I can sing or play or its great that I can do that even though I am blind kind of thing. I still need all of your support so I would be hugely grateful for all your votes. As I am sure you all know by now you can vote for me by texting glor 7 to 53307 here in Ireland or by texting the above to 81108 if you are in the UK.

So, that is all the really important things for now. I will try to write a lot more now particularly with comments to the shows. It could be all over for me after the first elimination show on the 30th which is one week from tomorrow but we will wait and see. I am very happy at the moment and have a lot to be grateful for. They say good things happen to those that wait and right now over the past few months I do not have much to be complaining about.

I just haven’t gotten round to updating my blog in ages. I am not going to go into a week by week account of what I have been up too but I have had an eventful few weeks. I have been bowling again and I haven’t done that in years. I have also tried my hand at throwing a dart or two but Hmmm, well, that didn’t quite go to plan although I do have to say, I wasn’t the worst at that one. I have also been quite busy on the gigs front too.

Tomorrow fortnight the 9th of November will see me back on the box on Glor Tire on TG4 here in Ireland for the second programme that I will be doing for the show. There is one more pre-recorded programme that I will be featured on which will be shown on the 23rd of November and the week after that will see the start of the live eliminations where people will be voted off the show each week. There will be four of these shows with the winner announced the week before Christmas. All the details about the programme I have wrote about in an earlier post so I won’t go through it here again.

Today has been a mixture of a day for me. I had written before that Ralph will be facing into retirement very soon. Well, today saw the start of it with a visit from an instructor from Guide Dogs to re-interview me to be put back on the waiting list for a new dog. I was actually dreading this day over the past while as I found it a little sad to think that I would be discussing a new dog and what I wanted to have in a new dog while Ralph was still here and also, facing into the fact that Ralph would have to stop working soon and retire and that he was not going to just go on for ever.

Anyway, I met the person from Guide Dogs here at my house just after 1:00. I had decided this morning that I just had to face this and there was no point in being silly about it all and try to see it as a positive experience. I know that Ralph will be very happy in his retirement living with my parents. I suppose its just hard to think that he won’t be working with me any more and that I will have to put my trust in a new dog. I have to say though that the trainer was very nice and extremely understanding of how I was and am feeling about it all. She totally relaxed me and I found myself enjoying the visit and really being able to chat to her very much in an informal way about what I would like in a new dog and about my circumstances at the moment with work and my home life and my social routines and so on. Guide Dogs need to collect this information if they are to make a successful match with me and a potential successor for Ralph.

At the end of our walk which went on longer than I had thought it would we went for a short walk around the block here at my house. She asked me if I just wanted to do the walk with Ralph and she could see my walking pace from that or would I like to walk with her. My walking pace has to be measured so that the dog that I am matched with will have as similar a pace as I do. I chose to walk with her even though I hated having to hold on to a harness and walk with her like that. I would be just thinking of people walking past thinking, “what the fuck are they doing”? Anyway, we did pass one or two people but they didn’t even know me so it was all good. I thought she would get a better feel for my pace by walking with her than taking Ralph out. We finished chatting and she went on her way just before half 3 so it was a good meeting and very beneficial to me I felt. Because of commitments I have and stuff between work and music I probably will not train with a new dog till at least late February or March and Mr. Ralph will keep working with me till then.

There are a few people that read this blog that have been very supportive to me over the last while when I have bored them with questions or just talking about how I felt about it all and you know who you are. I would like to thank you for your support and really, its great to have friends like you. I am also being told of more people stumbling across this blog and its great that you are enjoying reading it. I update when I can or when I have something useful to say so do keep checking back and I do welcome all comments.

Well, the night finally came. I had told you earlier in the summer that I was taking part in Glor Tire on tg4 this year. I meant to blog before the show to just talk a little about it but I have to say that I was very nervous about it and so decided I wouldn’t write anything till the show actually went out.

All day yesterday I was very nervous. I said to a few people that I really shouldn’t have bothered going to work as I just couldn’t consontrate there. I know at times people will say that its good to keep doing stuff if you have something on your mind or, if you are waiting in anticipation for something that is about to happen but yesterday was just a day I don’t want to have again. Its not that things were really bad or anything. It was just that I was very tense and edgy as to how it would all go and what people would think of my performance.

I had decided earlier in the week to go for dinner with my sister Karen yesterday evening and two of her friends. This was a good decision for me as it got me away from thinking about the show which was going to be shown at half ten. I even had a pint just to calm the nerves. I left the pub and was back home for about 10:00. Karen wanted to come back with me and watch it in my house but I wouldn’t let her. I wanted to watch it all on my own. I do sort of regret that now. I think that I should have had some company with me but I have always been like that. I am very critical of myself in what I do. I am very shy also with performing and stuff like that. People that know me well may laugh at me saying that cause I am very outgoing and talkative but I don’t like any sort of fuss to be created about me. I know I can sing. People tell me and I get great enjoyment from it and also from playing music. Although, I think I am probably much better at singing than I would be at playing. I count myself very lucky that I have the tallent to play and sing. I don’t, and never have thought that I am better than anyone else. I just love what I do and it really makes me happy that others like it. That is all I want. I just want people to enjoy it. When people give me complements about my music I do find that hard cause I get shy and embarrassed about it. I do appreciate all comments though it can just be hard for me cause I don’t know what to say. I am just me. I am just like everyone else. I hate being put on some sort of platform even though I know that its cause people like what I am doing. I never want to be any different to anyone else and if I was able to achieve more in the future and be able to devote more time to music on a professional level I would always like to think that when the gigs were done I could just come home and relax and just do the same old things and have a bit of a laugh and stuff with my friends like I would do at present.

As the show started and in the lead up to my performance I got texts from work colleagues and close friends. I just can not believe the support that I have received from people. I was number 7 on the show and everything went reasonably well. Yes, I would like to change certain little things about the performance I gave but I have decided that I am not going to critique myself. If I started doing that I wouldn’t be able to stop as I am just terrible for finding fault. I remember recording earlier in the year and Ollie who produced for me had to remind me of that from time to time. I was so relieved when my turn had finally come and although I wasn’t impressed with hearing myself, the time had finally come for my moment of glory in the competition. I had some very positive feedback from the judges apart from one little remark about me possibly just learning Irish but I suppose that the gentleman in question wasn’t to know that I did actually achieve an honour in Irish for my Leaving Cert.

As you will know if you got to watch the show, there are eight more people taking part as well as myself. Next week the first performer from last night Paul will take the stage for his night. I am number 7 and am due back on your tv on the 9th of November. You are able to vote for me now if you so wish to do so by texting with no spaces glor7 to 53307 in Ireland or, in the north of Ireland and the UK text with no spaces glor7 to 81108.

Again, I would just like to thank my close friends for their terrific support. I know for some people country music isn’t their thing but I really appreciate your support and you all know who you are.

Well, its absolutely ages since I wrote here but I thought I might as well give it a blast as they say.

A friend of mine told me to start blogging again a few months back when I asked her to help me with something so, Emma, I am going to dedicate this post to you also.

I have always wanted to go back into the studio again, so I eventually headed back in there in January. Last year I had in fact started working on some new tracks but I sort of parked it at the time, fully intending to come back to it but didn’t get round to it till this January. I was heading on a Cruise in May which turned out to be a great success and I wanted tracks ready for it to have something new as its been a while since I went into the studio. Anyway… to stop myself waffling I will just carry on and say that I got myself back into the studio and began working again on my latest offerings. This studio experience for me was very positive and very enjoyable. I had the pleasure of having a great producer and a friend working with me who I have played with many times before. Ollie Hennessy is well known to people around here as he is a local man but Ollie has worked for years as a producer and a stage musical director for many different people and shows and has done lots of television work with RTÉ. I worked very closely with Ollie and Frank the engineer and we brought in several more musicians to make the tracks as good as we possibly could.

The four tracks which I have recently releaced are, Take Me Home To Carlow which was composed by Declan Smith a local man. The Voyage which a lot of people will know from hearing Christy Moore sing, Raglan Road which I probably again do not need to talk about as it will also be one that a lot of people will know. And finally, Through The Eyes Of An Irish Man. This song has sort of been in my head for a long time to record. Terry Bradford wrote this song and he is an English musician who I have seen perform before.

At the moment I am busy trying to get my CD around to radio stations and also trying to get it on general distribution so I will keep people informed as to how that is going.

I am very shy sometimes about my friends hearing my music. I don’t really know why that is. I suppose I worry that they might not like it or that its just that I get nervous around them because if its just the general public then I will sing or play away and it will not bother me. Recently I had some friends come down for my birthday which was meant to be a surprise but which ended up not to be but that is another story. Anyway, they persuaded me to let them listen and well, they actually liked it and that did please me.

Quite recently I was contacted by my friend Trudi Lalor who I have worked with in the past on different occasions to ask me if I would be her guest and take part in the Glór Tíre competition. This is a competition that has been running for the past number of years on TG4 which is our television station here in Ireland which braudcasts in Irish. This programme is a country music competition. I have sang country stuff for most of my musical existance and my new tracks have mostly a folk feeling to them which is what I wanted but I thought about it and figured that this programme would give me the exposure that may prove valuable in the future.

Last week I travelled to Galway to take part in pre-recorded shows where I was joined by Trudi for one of them and we sang together. I will talk more about these shows and how they went at the time they are going to be shown on TV which will be in mid September. I will say though that I did have a good few days and found the crew and all concerned at the venue very helpful and friendly to me. There are eight other people taking part in this competition so who knows how it will all pan out. I will be looking for votes so will be grateful of your support when the time comes round.

So, that is a condensed few paragraphs of what I have been getting up to lately. I do plan on trying to keep more up to date on my blog and letting people know what I am up too here. Its surprising how much you can write when you start but I’ll sign off for now and do feel free to comment and engage with me here.